A new "what are you doing in the loading room today" thread

[lightman]

I started tumbling, sorting and storing brass away yesterday. I'll be all day today and probably tomorrow. Its suppose to reach 70º this afternoon and if it does I'll sort 2 buckets of wheelweights that I scored recently.

[lightman]

The last couple of days I have been prepping 223 brass for our annual Prairie Dog hunt.

[seeker]

I'm loading up a few different 45/70 to try out.

[Happyguy]

What are you loading for 45-70? I load 11 grains of Trail Boss under a 405 grain lead bullet and shoot the gong at 200 yards. A lot of fun.

[1blue]

I've been a casting fool. I went through the last lead score I came across. Now I'm sizing and lubing like crazy. Next up is reloading some 9mm and 45acp.

[LEP]

Decided to go outside my comfort zone and do a 6.5 Creedmore build. Now to source dies & brass.

[seeker]

What are you loading for 45-70? I load 11 grains of Trail Boss under a 405 grain lead bullet and shoot the gong at 200 yards. A lot of fun.

I tried Trail boss and wasn't impressed. Next I used R7 and they shot one ragged hole at 50 yrds. but opened up to a 4" group at 100 yrds. Now I have 4 different loads to try with 4198, a little stiffer R7, 2400 and Unique. I'm new at 45/70 but I'm having fun. Being from north central Pa., the weather hasn't been too cooperative for range trips.
These are all with 340gr. and 405gr. cast bullets.

[1blue]

Finished up reloading with Aguila primers, thank goodness. So I have moved on with another brand I haven't tried before, Servicios Aventuras Small Pistol Primers. These seat great in all sorts of 9mm brass, same with revolver brass. All went bang. Deep firing pin marks. Very pleased. I did not buy them from Powder Valley. I found them from Southern Defense for $27 less a brick. SD also has flat $35 shipping includes hazmat. Min purchase of 3k. I would recommend SD and these primers made in Argentina.

[Happyguy]

Glad to hear about the Argentine primers, Norma Shooting has them for $62.00 per 1,000 shipped I received 5,000 but haven't used them yet. I was brought a Marlin 27-S in 25-20 home so I have been gathering brass to reload. A local guy had 7 loaded rounds of 32-20 he trade for a bottle of Bud Lite and then someone on the Marlin forum took pity on me and sent me 45 fired 25-20 cases. I annealed the 32-20 and formed them in to 25-20, to the range today or tomorrow.

[1blue]

Glad to hear about the Argentine primers, Norma Shooting has them for $62.00 per 1,000 shipped I received 5,000 but haven't used them yet. I was brought a Marlin 27-S in 25-20 home so I have been gathering brass to reload. A local guy had 7 loaded rounds of 32-20 he trade for a bottle of Bud Lite and then someone on the Marlin forum took pity on me and sent me 45 fired 25-20 cases. I annealed the 32-20 and formed them in to 25-20, to the range today or tomorrow.

Paid 62.99 myself for the SA primers. Bought 2k to begin with. Liked them so much I ordered another 3k. Nice on the new Marlin 27S. Did you get the round or octagon barrel?

[Happyguy]

Octagon, just finished 7 rounds to try tomorrow.

[1blue]

Thumbs up for the octagon barrel! I would like to hear a range report. :cool:

[Happyguy]

Well I finally shot the 25-20. Since I am only using the formed 32-20 cases I only shoot 7 shots a day. The first day I used HS 7 and an 85 grain lead bullet. Not one hole in the paper. When I returned home I noticed that the sights were set at 125 yards, I felt better about the missed target. Next day I went out and it is dead on the center, and is grouping very good. I used Trail Boss and an 85 grain lead bullet. I will shoot it of the rest next time for grouping.

[lightman]

That sounds very promising!

[lightman]

Just to keep the thread alive. I resized, trimmed and deburred, uniformed the primer pockets, deburred the flash hole and primed 100 Lapua 308 cases. These will eventually get stuffed with a case full of Varget and topped with a 168 Grain Berger VLD hunting bullet! This is the last of the brass that I have in the older cardboard box. Going forward, all my Lapua brass is in the blue plastic boxes.

[Happyguy]

I have been loading a lot of 9 mm and 10 mm and shooting it and then going to the range. I am waiting for cylinder end shake shims for my K 38 and the I will be loading 38 Special also. Next week I will do some 308 load development.

[don3]

doing some 32-20 loading, have a Colt saa 1st gen. a model73 Win made in 1882, a Browning model 53 so trying to find bullet/load for all three

[Happyguy]

I just picked up some 25-20 brass and 32-20 brass, forming the 32-20 into 25-20, sorry don3. Also finishing up prepping a bunch of 223 from my brother, almost finished with removing the crimps.

[don3]

Happyguy, I also have A MOD.92 WINCHESTER IN 25-20 brass s hard to find, Have a 218 Bee but have a few boxs of ammo and some brass.

[SafetyJoe]

Finished sorting by head stamp a bunch of 38 special & 45acp brass that's listed on my trading post. Now I'm doing the final inspection on 8000+ pcs of nickel plated 40 s&w brass I'm wanting to get rid of.

Seems like the public shooting range I go to has been very slow for activity this year. I'm thinking it's because of inflation and the bad economy. Most people don't have enough extra cash to spend on shooting guns. If I had to guess it seems like it's been about 50% less brass I've been getting this year.

[blackhawk357]

some I loaded this week for a friend. I have found them to be extremely accurate out of a model 29-2 three inch barrel.

[SafetyJoe]

Unique is one of my favorite powders for my cast lead bullets. It seems to be accurate for a lot of different calibers I've tried. Examples are 357 mag, 44 mag and even 308 winchester. When it comes to 308 win between 13 and 15 grains using 130 to 150 grain cast lead bullets gives me very good accuracy using my TC Compass bolt gun.

For 357 mag and 44 mag in a lever action you get decent velocity which usually increases the efficiency in terms of kinetic energy per grain of gun powder used. Many bottle neck calibers like 223 or 308 loaded with jacketed bullets pushing at or near their typical factory loadings for velocity only give you around 50 ft lbs muzzle energy per grain of gun powder used, but a 357 mag or 44 mag 16" carbine using unique powder can give you around 100 ft lbs muzzle energy per grain of gun powder. That's twice the kinetic efficiency.

[seeker]

Finished sorting by head stamp a bunch of 38 special & 45acp brass that's listed on my trading post. Now I'm doing the final inspection on 8000+ pcs of nickel plated 40 s&w brass I'm wanting to get rid of.

Seems like the public shooting range I go to has been very slow for activity this year. I'm thinking it's because of inflation and the bad economy. Most people don't have enough extra cash to spend on shooting guns. If I had to guess it seems like it's been about 50% less brass I've been getting this year.

The only brass I have been finding is steel cases.
The loading room...? I've been playing with 45-70 all summer. With the price of Varget at $59.99 the last time I visited the lgs, I've been working on more economical loads. I found data for pistol powders that shoot great. I have 3#s of Bullseye and I have 2 loads that shoot same POE. 12 grs. behind a 405gr. cast and 11.5 behind a 340 gr. cast. I have a lifetime supply of lead, I cast my own and I shoot my Henry a lot. I'm having a blast.

[SafetyJoe]

The only brass I have been finding is steel cases.
The loading room...? I've been playing with 45-70 all summer. With the price of Varget at $59.99 the last time I visited the lgs, I've been working on more economical loads. I found data for pistol powders that shoot great. I have 3#s of Bullseye and I have 2 loads that shoot same POE. 12 grs. behind a 405gr. cast and 11.5 behind a 340 gr. cast. I have a lifetime supply of lead, I cast my own and I shoot my Henry a lot. I'm having a blast.

Yeah, I've pretty much been doing the same thing. Except I use the software program called quickload o my desktop computer to calculate the data for load data that can't be found published anywhere. If you give me the specifics for the bullets you use and the powders you have I can run the data in the program to see what it says. I need to know bullet weight, bullet length, case length, COAL, case capacity in terms of grains of water and barrel length.
Results will look something like this 369

[seeker]

Yeah, I've pretty much been doing the same thing. Except I use the software program called quickload o my desktop computer to calculate the data for load data that can't be found published anywhere. If you give me the specifics for the bullets you use and the powders you have I can run the data in the program to see what it says. I need to know bullet weight, bullet length, case length, COAL, case capacity in terms of grains of water and barrel length.
Results will look something like this 369
Much appreciated.
Bullet weight- 425gr. RCBS 45-405-FN coww
Bullet length-1.0725
case length-2.0920
COAL- 2.51
Case capacity- 77.5 gr. water
Barrel length- 18.43"


Bullet weight-347gr. Lee 457-340-F
Bullet length- 0.8735
Case length- 2.0920
COAL2.5270
Case capacity- 77.5gr. water
Barrel length-18.43"
Thanks a lot, I sure do appreciate this. Have a great evening. G.

[SafetyJoe]

Besides Bullseye powder what other powders do you want to try?


With the RCBS bullet 11.5 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,273psi. 12.4 grains is the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 13.6 grains is the max charge at 27,903 psi.

Here's what the 12.4 grains looks like
370

With the Lee bullet 13.6 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,129psi. 14.7 grains puts you at the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 16.1 grains is the max charge at 27,812psi.

Here's what the 14.7 grains looks like.
372

Not sure why the 14.6 grain chart is still showing up below in this post after I deleted it so just ignore that one.

[Happyguy]

BE 86, a great 10mm powder.

[seeker]

Besides Bullseye powder what other powders do you want to try?


With the RCBS bullet 11.5 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,273psi. 12.4 grains is the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 13.6 grains is the max charge at 27,903 psi.

Here's what the 12.4 grains looks like
370

With the Lee bullet 13.6 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,129psi. 14.7 grains puts you at the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 16.1 grains is the max charge at 27,812psi.

Here's what the 14.7 grains looks like.
372

Not sure why the 14.6 grain chart is still showing up below in this post after I deleted it so just ignore that one.

Much appreciated Safety Joe. Excuse my ignorance but can you please explain "Yellow Zone" and "Purple Zone" I'm thinking start and mid range loads? Bullseye is working real well. I have lots of pistol powders but the only other one I have been curious about is BE-86, which really doesn't have much data outside of Alliant's published data. Even that doesn't have much variance. I like it for 45 Colt but my go to 45 colt powder is 2400. I have a couple of pounds BE-86 in the cupboard and haven't touched it in awhile.

[SafetyJoe]

Much appreciated Safety Joe. Excuse my ignorance but can you please explain "Yellow Zone" and "Purple Zone" I'm thinking start and mid range loads? Bullseye is working real well. I have lots of pistol powders but the only other one I have been curious about is BE-86, which really doesn't have much data outside of Alliant's published data. Even that doesn't have much variance. I like it for 45 Colt but my go to 45 colt powder is 2400. I have a couple of pounds BE-86 in the cupboard and haven't touched it in awhile.

Yeah, starting loads are in the beginning of the yellow zone, purple is mid range and red is the no go above max pressure zone. BE-86 isn't one of the powders listed in quickload. There's a few other powders they don't list like 700x and 800x because the variations from one lot of powder to the next is too much for them to consider it consistent so they don't list those powders. Maybe that's the case with BE-86 or maybe it's not listed because my version of quickload is an older version that came out before BE-86 was introduced.

[lightman]

I started the day by shooting my muzzle loader and then cleaning it. Then I had my youngest Son and 2 of the Grandsons over to load them some 308's for the up-coming Deer Season.

Its good to see you guys posting!

[seeker]

Yeah, starting loads are in the beginning of the yellow zone, purple is mid range and red is the no go above max pressure zone. BE-86 isn't one of the powders listed in quickload. There's a few other powders they don't list like 700x and 800x because the variations from one lot of powder to the next is too much for them to consider it consistent so they don't list those powders. Maybe that's the case with BE-86 or maybe it's not listed because my version of quickload is an older version that came out before BE-86 was introduced.

That's probably it. I'm really happy with these Bullseye loads. Not only because they are so accurate but I have 3 pounds of the stuff and I can get a lot more bang for my buck than I can with rifle powder at what it costs these days. Best to you. G.

[lightman]

A buddy and I made the rounds of most of the local shooting places last week and picked up some brass. But not as much as I expected. I guess the cost of ammo has peoples shooting slowed down.

Most of this brass had been wet and had lots of grass and stuff stuck to it. So I started out washing it, then drying it, then depriming it.

I'll tumble it after the 1st of the year and make some additions to my trade list!

[Jungle Dave]

Starting out today just finding this forum and looking through it. Glad to find it. Next, I'll get in gear and size/lube about 150 405gr HB for .45-70....then vacuum....or vacuum first and then....oh well...

[Happyguy]

Starting out today just finding this forum and looking through it. Glad to find it. Next, I'll get in gear and size/lube about 150 405gr HB for .45-70....then vacuum....or vacuum first and then....oh well...

Welcome to the forum.

[lightman]

Welcome Aboard, Dave! Feel free to join right in!

[seeker]

Welcome to the forum. I'd sure like to see activity here get to where it used to be.

[lightman]

I started yesterday morning tumbling last years range brass. Did 4 loads, 2 hours each, yesterday and I'm on the 3rd load for today. Hoping to finish tomorrow or Monday.

Maybe by next week I will have some additions to my trade page!

[rodnocker1]

I just finished prepping and priming 1,000 pcs of WMA 5.56 brass.

I'm only going to the Range now to pick up brass about every 2 weeks but I'm still usually finding what I consider a "Fair" amount there when I go. I use those plastic buckets that Deckmate packages their 25#'s of Deck screws. They're square and have extremely stiff sides so that when I'm kneeling on the ground picking up brass, I can use the bucket to stand up (with my bad knees, back, and shoulders it's getting tougher and tougher to pick up brass, especially since getting off of my Pain Meds, LOL). This last time, I ended up with 2 of those plastic buckets full, so about 50# of mixed brass. LOTS of .223/5.56 and 9mm but sadly, no Weatherby Calibers. Someone(s) at Our Range has taken up shooting .300 PRC, 7mm PRC, and 6.5 mm PRC and they are leaving their brass, so I'm figuring that they must not reload.

I'm in the middle of swapping out the 4' Fluorescent light fixtures in my reloading room to 8' LED's. I've been needing to get better lighting in there and had been trying to figure out how to add lights, then my Son told me about some 8' LED's he'd found on Amazon. Since my Fluorescent Fixtures are already paid for and I have plenty of 4' tubes, I started to not go with the LED's and just add a couple of more 4' fixtures.....That's until I found out what 4' fixtures are going for these days! Not to mention that the LED's use less power and put out way more light.

[lightman]

I used to get the square buckets that Grain Bin Bolts came it. Heavy plastic like you have. But I don't wire Grain Bins anymore!

[1blue]

I'm sure many of us have tried Servicios y Aventuras Small Pistol Primers? I've noticed a problem with striker fired pistols. I'm getting light primer strikes (FTF). When I take the same round and put it in a 1911 (hammer fired) it goes off every time. So the next time I went to the range I took some retail rounds and some reloads with CCI primers to try in the pistol in question. There were no FTF with the pistol that was experiencing problems with the SA prrimers. Anyone have any issues with these primers and a striker fired pistol? I've been considering replacing the striker to see this addresses the issue. I've already replaced the springs, but this did not help. Thoughts?

[Happyguy]

I am using them in my Glock 19 and I am not having issues. I had already lightened the spring but I did a very thorough polish job on the internals. I had seen this on another board also.